Keeners Race Day By Marcus Loving

Throughout the keener program we do many different activities in order to help us grow as both kayakers and people.  Different activities are assigned to different days of the week. Mondays are generally used to get everyone warmed back up and ready to kayak for the week.  Tuesdays are used improve upon general skills on the water. Wednesdays are used for racing and generally help with performing under pressure. Thursdays are used to help with comfortability under water, and being in situations that make people uncomfortable.  Fridays are used for freestyle competitions in order to help people perform under pressure and also have fun while improving their skills.

One of my personal favorite days is Wednesday.  On Wednesdays we compete in several races on the water throughout the day.  The first race that we competed in on the past Wednesday, was a time trial race through the mccoys section of the Ottawa river.  Before we began the race each competitor was given the task of scouting the section of river in order to find the fastest line through it.  After scouting out a line, the race begins. Each person starts in the top eddy of the river section and one at a time makes their way down when the coaches tell them to.  Many people take their own unique and different lines down the section of river. These different lines generally end with varying success with some being very fast and others resulting in severe slow downs.  

I took one of the more unique lines through this section of river.  This was the first time that anyone had attempted this line during a race run.  This made me very skeptical as to whether I should attempt this line. When the my time trial began I immediately paddled as hard as a I could toward the right side of the river. I did this in order to reach the checkpoint on the right bank of the river.  The issue that most people had with this line is that if you mess up, you end up in a large rapid called “Phil’s Hole” which is just beneath where I would reach the checkpoint. After getting to the checkpoint I paddled as hard as I could around the right side of “Phil’s Hole”.  After getting around the right side of “Phil’s Hole” I then sprinted for the finish line where i completed the race with a time of 53 seconds. This time won me first place in the race, and was my first win of the day.

I was the last competitor to compete in this race, and this worked to my advantage.  While I was waiting for my turn i watched all of the other competitors in order to see how there lines were and how I could improve upon my own line based off of where the others were going and how they were doing.  This allowed me to perfect my line into one that I was able to win with due to a lack of places to mess up.

After lunch the coaches put together another race course for us to compete in.  This race was a boater-cross. This means that groups of competitors will be sent down in head to head heats with the top two competitors in each group progressing on to the next round.  The first heat took place on a section of river called “Norman’s”. We started with five groups with about five competitors in each group. There are two checkpoints on each bank that the competitors need to reach before they can go to the finish line.  

At the beginning of my heat we all sprinted for the the right bank of the river where we each reached the checkpoint at varying times.  After that we all sprinted for the left bank of the river with Cameron and I out in front of the group. On the final sprint of the race I managed to pull ahead of Cameron and won my heat.  This allowed me to move on to the finals along with Cameron, and was my second win of the day.

After all of the groups had finished competing, the top two competitors in each heat had to race in a finals heat on a section of river called “Coliseum”  The finals heat consisted of about ten people, and had one checkpoint one the left bank of the river that the competitors had to reach before they went to the finish line.  

At the beginning of the race we all sprinted downstream for the checkpoint with Logan in the lead.  As we approached the checkpoint, Logan got stuck on one of the rocks. This slowed him down by a lot and allowed me to pass him.  After reaching the checkpoint I was able to hold the lead throughout the entire final sprint. I was able to take first place, making this my third win of the day.

The different races throughout the day were very enjoyable, and helped to make my skills at scouting better.  My endurance and general physical fitness was also improved through the sprinting and physical exertion portion of these races.  Along with improving my skills and providing the much needed exercise the races were very fun and created a interesting and enjoyable way to improve upon myself on and off the water.